Macy’s Christmas Windows Tell The Story Behind The Most Famous Words In American Journalism: “Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus.”

Philip M. Stone December 15, 2010 Follow on Twitter

The famous Christmas windows at Macy's 34th Street store in New York City – said to be the world’s largest department store – as well as its stores in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have been given over this Christmas to tell the story of eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon, famous for her 1897 letter to the New York Sun asking its editor if there really is a Santa Claus. And it all has been done in great style.

Each window is a mini-show with super scene changes, lighting, video and voiceover. If ever there was storybook then this has to be it, but it is no fairy tale, for Virginia really did write the letter, and the editor answered on Page1, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”

No wonder the name Virginia is so sacred within US newspaper journalism. For Virginia not only asked the question, “Is there a Santa Claus?” but she pointed out how readers had so much faith and trust in what they read in their newspapers, “Papa says, if you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” If only newspapers today had that same reputation!

Macy’s, of course, has been one of the biggest newspaper display advertisers for decades. Its parent company, Federated Department Stores, is responsible, however, for drastically reducing department store newspaper ad spending in recent years by buying up so many different stores and consolidating them under the Macy’s label – so instead of separate four or five pages weekly of display ads for, say, three stores in town it became just four or five pages for the one store in town and that really hurt the bottom line. Still, it’s a nice touch to remind everyone this Christmas season about how important newspapers were (can be).

For what can be more important than to tell children once and for all that there most certainly is a Santa Claus, and there will be no argument from this writer on that score! But if you still are in some doubt then judge for yourself. Here is Virginia’s question and the newspaper’s response:

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

An animated “Yes, Virginia” airs on network TV in the US on December 17.  The sponsor? Of course, Macy’s.